This invention relates to a garment comprising body armour. Such a garment might be worn by a member of the armed forces, police and so on.
The armour might comprise flexible penetration resistant material and/or, for extra protection, a rigid ceramic plate. The provision of buoyancy is useful in some situations and the prior art includes several proposals for garments comprising buoyant material such as foam sheets as well as armour.
U.S. Pat. 5,584,734 proposes a garment comprising pockets for receiving anti-ballistic inserts and buoyancy elements including an inflatable chamber.
According to the invention, there is provided a protective body garment comprising penetration resistant armour, a gas inflatable bag and inflation means for inflating the bag to provide buoyancy to a wearer of the garment when immersed in water, characterised in that the bag is arranged for extending between the armour and the wearer""s body when the garment is being worn and the garment is such as to minimise harm to the wearer by pressure on the wearer""s body when the bag is inflated by limiting said pressure.
Preferably the body armour comprises a plurality of components which are either flexible or flexibly connected together, whereby the armour expands on inflation of the gas bag. The garment may comprise portions interconnected by expansion joints which, when the bag inflates, permit said portions to move to provide room for the bag to expand, for example, the expansion joint could comprise folded strips of material connected between said portions.
Advantageously, the garment comprises valve means connected to said bag for limiting pressure in the bag when it is inflated.
The body armour may include a metal mesh layer and may comprise padding to reduce trauma.
Preferably the garment comprises automatic immersion sensitive inflation means for said bag.
In one preferred aspect the garment comprises an inner vest connectable to an outer jacket, for example, with zip fastener means for connecting the vest and jacket together. Preferably the vest and the jacket each comprise a gas inflatable bag and each bag has pressure limiting valve means connected thereto.